


Look To The Stars

by basilbleu



Series: It Burns [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Bittersweet, Conflict, Elemental Magic, Fantasy, Fluff, Internal Conflict, Kid Keith (Voltron), Magic, Mentioned Krolia (Voltron), Secrets, Storytelling, Witch Keith (Voltron), Witchcraft, Witches, pyro elemental keith, witch keith's father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21575632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basilbleu/pseuds/basilbleu
Summary: “What kind of witch was she? Was she like us?”“Nah, she was better, stronger.” He hesitated, the truth on the tip of his tongue. No, he’d wait to tell Keith when he could understand. “She couldn’t weave fire, but she had the heart of a pyro. Intimidated everyone in a room, your ma. Had a sense of danger following her, but I loved thrills and she always sent my heart racing.”“Always?” Keith asked in awe.---Keith and his father have a story telling session.
Relationships: Keith & Keith's Father (Voltron)
Series: It Burns [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1179152
Comments: 13
Kudos: 95





	Look To The Stars

**Author's Note:**

> this is more of a way to explain the world a little bit better. it's not much, but hopefully it helps

“Pop, where’s ma?”

Keith’s father looked at his son sitting a step below him on their beaten up stairs to their desert home. He lightly sighed. 

“She’s with the stars,” he replied, looking up to the constellations above them both. He pulled his son further into him, settling the small boy between his legs and wrapping his arms around his bony shoulders. His hand sailed through the air tracing the stars as violet eyes watched transfixed. “Your ma was a wild woman. Full of spirit and joy. Almost every night she’d pull me out here to dance beneath the night sky.” 

He flicked his fingers and fire sprouted from them, a woman dancing in flames soared into the sky. He smiled at the memories: her soft skin against his, her laughter getting lost to the desert wind, her violet eyes glinting in the moonlight; all her stoicness simply made her smile that much sweeter. “She was my desert sun. Hot, burning. She was strong, overwhelming and she was mine. And I was hers. Then we had you and you were ours.”

“...Then why did she leave?” Keith asked, his quiet voice almost getting lost to the night. The dancing woman flickered out. “If we were hers, then why did she leave us?” 

His father’s heart cracked a little more, a new tear he’d have to heal. How could he explain to his son what actually happened to his ma? He’s too young to understand, hasn’t even begun to tame his magick. He already barely remembered what his ma looked like, her smile, her voice; and he would soon forget completely. His son would grow up without his ma, all because of the ignorance and fear of others. He pulled Keith closer, warming them both. 

“She loved you,” he said, conviction as strong as the desperation in his voice. “Never forget that she loved you, Keith. She didn’t want to leave… I begged her to stay, but your ma left to protect us both,” he said into his son’s hair, placing a solid kiss on his black locks. “Your ma is a hero. Best of them all.”

“Yeah?” Keith turned his head, violet eyes glinting.

“Yeah, she was something, kiddo.”

“Something,” he hummed. He pressed more firmly into his father. “What kind of witch was she? Was she like us?”

“Nah, she was better, stronger.” He hesitated, the truth on the tip of his tongue. No, he’d wait to tell Keith when he could understand. “She couldn’t weave fire, but she had the heart of a pyro. Intimidated everyone in a room, your ma. Had a sense of danger following her, but I loved thrills and she always sent my heart racing.”

“Always?” Keith asked in awe.

“Always,” his father replied, grabbing his son and tickling his sides.

“ _ Pop! _ ” shrieked Keith as he tried to pull away, giggles escaping his lips. He wiggled, wiggled, and wiggled, until pops of flames flickered around them, riding on Keith’s laughter. With wide eyes, Keith froze and covered his mouth. His father stopped his moving fingers.

“Sorry,” Keith whispered with downcast eyes. The flames disappeared on the desert breeze. 

“No, don’t be sorry,” his father reassured. He took his son’s chin in his hand, their eyes connected. “You’ll get the hang of it. Magick takes time. You have to practice.”

Keith violently nodded. “I’ll practice all the time! Every day! Then I can tell stories like your fire.”

His father laughed. “You can be the grandest storyteller in all the pockets!”

“What are pockets anyway?” Keith asked. He sat up in his father’s lap and placed his pale hands on his shoulders. “We live in the Demon Pocket. Are there others?”

Curious; his son was always so curious. 

“Get comfy, kiddo.” Keith brightened and immediately snuggled into his side, his eyes already alight with joy knowing another story was about to be told. His father lit flames and lifted them into the air, hanging them like the stars. “Once upon a time, all creatures lived on a world. Magickals and non-magickals lived together. Witches, like us. Demons, like our neighbors, and dragons. Nymphs and mers. Vampires too.” The flames swirled creating each creature mentioned and more: selkies, banshees, wyverns, pixies, angels; things Keith had never seen, didn’t even know the names to. Flocks of feathered creatures soared toward the stars. Others galloped through the air. A few humanoids ran across the sky. “Anything creature you could think of.”

“Even hippos?” Keith interjected. His father paused, not quite sure what creature Keith referred to. 

Hesitantly he said, “Yes…”

“Knew it,” his son whispered. He silently laughed.

“Yes, well, everyone lived together, but not always happily. Non-magickal creatures called humans were troublemakers.” His fire shifted, revealing an army of them.

Keith gasped. ‘They look like witches.”

“And that’s what made them dangerous. The humans were scared of magickals, absolutely terrified. And fear makes people hateful. They hunted magickals.” The fiery army marched forward. Keith cowered into his father’s side, grasping at his shirt. “Sometimes attacking forthright and other times infiltrating the witch covens. The human population grew while the magickal’s dwindled. Soon a very powerful witch came forward with a solution.”

“The first Merlyn?” Keith gasped. 

“Yeah, Merlyn specialized in ley lines, the magick that surrounds the world.” The flames came together swirling until a planet took shape. Lines criss crossed its surface, connecting and disconnecting, swirling and drooping. “For years he had studied the wild magick in the world and he proposed a plan: use the ley lines to make a new world. Fold the magick of the world into a pocket, one that would hide them from the humans and protect those who needed protecting. Already there were spells to tuck small objects into the magick of the world until they were called upon again, but nothing had been done on the scale that Merlyn suggested. Many thought he was crazy, but the covens were desperate.”

“He did it?”

“Of course, he did, but it took immense magick. The greatest alchemists gathered to create a staff to siphon his magick, enabling him to create the pocket.” The fire took the shape of the Staff, a wooden object with a crystal centered at its top. “But Merlyn lost his life in the process. His magick was absorbed into the structure of the pocket. His sacrifice saved all magickals.” 

The Staff swirled and swirled until a pocket of fire was formed. It pulsed and brightened. 

“The covens were the first to live in the pocket and eventually other magickal communities were welcomed as well. Unfortunately, after a few years, Merlyn’s pocket had become unstable.” The pocket shook and shook, the flames ate at each other. Keith gasped at the intensity of the heat.

“Then what happened to the witches? And the hippos? And everyone else?” Keith asked. 

“Well, no one knew as much about the ley lines as Meryln, but he had left his notes. Scholars, muses, and wizards poured over them, learning everything they could so they could fix the pocket before it could collapse. But even with all their knowledge and all those willing to sacrifice their lives for their people, the Staff wouldn’t respond to them. It Marked their skin. A thin black line would appear on the back of the hands of anyone who tried to wield it.”

Keith’s father gently took his son’s hands and raised them to the fire. Under the flickering light, thin lines decorated his skin. He rubbed a thumb over one before turning his hand, showing Keith the identical Mark on his own hand. 

“That’s what those are?” Keith whispered. “I thought they were birthmarks.”

“No, kiddo. These Marks mean that we’ve touched the Staff.”

“ _ What? _ ” Keith shouted incredulously, his high voice squeaking. “I touched the Staff? I don’t remember doing that!”

“Well, we were both too young to remember,” he explained. “Witches take their young children to the Staff to get Marked.”

“How come?” Keith questioned. His father ruffled his hair.

“I’m getting there, I’m getting there. What a curious and impatient little imp you are,” he chuckled.

“I’m not an imp,” Keith grumbled. His father ignored his denial and hugged his son closer. 

“So as I was saying, everyone the Staff didn’t respond to got Marked, like you and me. That is until a young girl snuck into the chamber that housed the Staff.”

A girl appeared in the fire above their heads. 

“She’s my age!” Keith shouted, getting excited and bouncing at his father’s side.

“Haha, yeah, she was young and didn’t know what the Staff did--not many people did then. But when she saw it, she felt this pull, this need to touch it, and when she did, something different happened.”

Keith watched as the girl reached for the Staff. Both hands snapped onto the twisting wood and smoke appeared from the crystal on the top of the Staff. It engulfed her hands and when she pulled away, they were Marked, but not like his or his father’s.

“Are those eyes?” Keith asked. His father nodded.

“Instead of near invisible black lines, the girl’s hands were covered in swirling patterns that engulfed them, but at the very center of her hands, eyes appeared. The other witches were in shock and after a few tests, it was revealed that the girl had Merlyn’s magick.”

“ _ Woah. _ ”

“His magick had been released into the magick holding the pocket together and found a new home within the girl. This was the first reincarnation of Merlyn’s magick. The scholars took the girl in and trained her until she was strong and old enough to repair the collapsing pocket with the Staff.”

The fire brightened. The once collapsing pocket suddenly shifted, the flames taming themselves. It seemed sturdy, stable. 

“She survived the repairs and lived to serve the witches and their covens for the rest of her life. Since then, after the death of the current Merlyn, the new one is searched for. Children are brought to the Staff in the hope that they will be blessed with Merlyn’s magick.”

“Aw, so I don’t have it,” Keith whined, staring at the back of his hands. 

“Nah, kiddo,” his father said. 

“ _ Nooo _ ,” Keith drew out. “I wanna be a hero!”

“Okay, okay, hush down now. I’m almost done,” his father chuckled. “After a few generations, inter-magickal conflicts began. The pocket was simply too small to house all magickals. The fae leaders were the first to petition the Merlyn to create a new pocket. Then over the centuries, pockets for the vampires, shifters, demons, angels, and lastly the mer were made. And here we are today with seven pockets connected by ley lines and created by generations of Merlyns.”

Keith took a moment. Staring at the fiery images of the seven pockets with pursed lips. He leaned back into his father’s side.

“Why are we in the Demon Pocket?” Keith asked. “We are witches.”

His father sighed. Another question he rather not fully answer. Another question to be asked when Keith was older and could understand. He was too young to be told everything yet. Why they moved here. Why his mother left. Why they were left in a desert among people who weren’t even their species. 

It wasn’t rare for magickals to coexist, but for them to be living on the outskirts of the city below them, to exile themselves to the desert sands instead of integrating themselves into the demon population living in the stone city. It wasn’t because of Keith’s instinctual pyro magick. Originally it had been because of his mother. Now it was simply waiting for Keith’s powers to fully develop. His father didn’t want to take any chances with his son. 

So instead with guilt in his heart he said, “There aren’t many forges in the Witch Pocket. We moved out here so I could work.”

“Can I work at the forge with you?” Keith asked. 

“Maybe when you’re older”

“But I’m old enough now!” Keith jumped from his father’s lap, stumbling in the sand before turning around and showing off his scrawny arms, curling them in an attempt to bulge any muscle. “See! I’m big and strong! I can help!”

His father laughed, gripping his stomach, before standing up and picking up his son.

“You still have a bit to go, but I heard from a dreamwalker that sleeping helps you grow faster.” He exaggeratedly hummed. “Maybe if you get lots and lots of sleep, you can come to the forge with me sooner.”

Keith gasped in excitement before squirming out of his father’s arms. He landed in the sand then took off up the stairs to their home.

“C’mon, pop! You have to tuck me in so I can grow bigger!”

“I’m coming, don’t you worry. Go get your sleeping clothes on and I’ll be right there.”

Keith nodded then dashed off into their home, trailing sand behind him. 

His father took one last look to the stars. He breathed in the dry, desert air.

“He’s going to make you proud, Krolia. I just know it.”

**Author's Note:**

> hoped you liked it! i thought about making it super emotional ya know with Krolia and all, but i kinda wanted to explain this world a little better. i hope its okay!


End file.
